The Toxicity of Social Media: From
Conditioning to Rehab
Social media were designed to attract
"eyeballs" and monetize them via targeted advertising. To guarantee repeat use,
the technology fostered the diminishment of impulse control and delayed
gratification and emphasized relative positioning (envy and status via ranking).
It also deliberately rewarded escalating aggression.
These led to the operant conditioning of the
users of these platforms and to addictive behaviors.
Addiction, in turn, engendered a reduced
capacity for intimacy and for the self-regulation of the user's sense of
self-worth and identity. Attention-seeking and grandiosity resulted in
dysempathy (enhanced pathological narcissism).
I modified my new treatment modality, Cold
Therapy (see below) and came up with a detox and rehab program for Internet and
Social Media Addiction.
Original posted here under the title: "CS 267:
Antisocial Media feat. Sam Vaknin (04/24/2020)"